School of Labour Studies, 3710McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
7966Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Canada.
New Solut. 2022 Feb;31(4):452-459. doi: 10.1177/10482911211053020. Epub 2021 Nov 3.
Workers who experience language barriers are more likely to get injured or sick because of their work and have poorer claim and return-to-work outcomes compared to other workers. To better understand the systemic factors that shape access to compensation in contexts of language barriers, we compared language accommodation policies and practices in the Quebec and Ontario workers' compensation systems. We uncovered gaps limiting access to professional interpreters in both provinces, although gaps were more pronounced in Quebec where workers were responsible for the cost of interpreters. We argue that simply improving the linguistic competence of workers' compensation systems is not sufficient to tackle access barriers and must be accompanied by efforts to address the root causes of social and economic inequities for workers who experience language barriers.
与其他工人相比，因工作而经历语言障碍的工人更有可能受伤或患病，并且在索赔和重返工作岗位方面的结果也更差。为了更好地理解影响语言障碍背景下获得赔偿的系统性因素，我们比较了魁北克省和安大略省工人赔偿制度中的语言便利政策和做法。我们发现，在这两个省份，都存在限制获得专业口译服务的差距，尽管在魁北克，工人需要承担口译员的费用，这方面的差距更为明显。我们认为，仅仅提高工人赔偿系统的语言能力是不足以解决获取障碍的，还必须努力解决语言障碍工人所面临的社会和经济不平等的根本原因。
